Assessment of the modiating role of cognitive emotion regulation associated with alexithymia and parental behavior based on the eating attitude among girl students

The aim of this study was to assess the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation associated with alexithymia and parental behavior based on the eating attitude among girl students.

The research method was descriptive correlation based on structural equations. The statistical samples of the study included all female high school students in Torbat-e Heydarieh, Khorasan Razavi in the academic year of 2019-2020 (N = 2832), of which 390 were selected according to the Slovin formula and multi-stage cluster sampling. They filled out alexithymia questionnaires by Bagby et al, and parental rearing methods by Baumrind and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire by Garnefski et al . The obtained data were analyzed by regression equations using Spss 23 and Amos 18 softwares.

The findings showed a positive and significant correlation between the variables of alexithymia, permissive, authoritarian parenting behavior and cognitive emotion regulation with eating attitude also a significant negative correlation between the variables of assertive and Authoritative parenting behavior and Cognitive regulation of maladaptive emotion with eating attitude (P < 0.01). Also, The indirect path of eating attitude based on alexithymia and parenting behaviors mediated by and cognitive emotion regulation of adaptive and maladaptive was significant so that 57% of the eating attitude variable was predicted.

According to the results, providing adequate training on parenting methods and cognitive emotion regulation skills can affect the formation of eating behaviors and attitudes.